“You walk into this room at your own risk, because it leads to the future; not a future that will be, but one that might be. This is not a new world: It is simply an extension of what began in the old one. It has patterned itself after every dictator who has ever planted the ripping imprint of a boot on the pages of history since the beginning of time. It has refinements, technological advances, and a more sophisticated approach to the destruction of human freedom. But like every one of the super states that preceded it, it has one iron rule: Logic is an enemy, and truth is a menace.”

Rod Serling, The Obsolete Man.

Rod Serling’s quote from the Obsolete Man, a much loved 1961 episode of The Twilight Zone, has never been so relevant for today’s society, a world in which common sense has been subverted and reality is frowned upon by an establishment that sustains its own power on a steady diet of universal deceit.

Since its introduction in a 1938 play and subsequent film adaptations, the term ‘gaslighting’ has entered into psychological textbooks as a form of psychological abuse whereby the protagonist seeks to make the victim doubt their own sanity by disorienting them and manipulating their sense of reality.

Psychologist Martha Stout documents how sociopaths will successfully put on an act of being charming and convincing while simultaneously waging war against the common sense of their victims through a constant barrage of lies and abuse, all the time claiming their innocence. This is a perfect description of how the mainstream media and the government operates in the United States today – habitually lying without recourse while denouncing anyone who challenges the lie as a “conspiracy theorist”.

A revolution has been launched against rationality and truth. Those who question authority are instantly derided as “conspiracy theorists” simply for coming to logical conclusions based on the evidence in front of them. The term “conspiracy theory” has been harnessed into a pejorative weapon with which to bludgeon free speech, healthy skepticism and independent thinking.

In reality, today’s “conspiracy theorist” is someone who has managed to retain some remnant of control over their own thought process and one who has successfully resisted becoming another victim of ‘gaslighting’ – an individual who knows when they are being lied to.

We live in an era where the ‘big lie’ has come to dominate virtually every sector of modern society – from news to entertainment, to foreign policy and politics, to the economy and healthcare. Only by refusing to accept that logic is an enemy and truth a menace, only by refusing to become victims of ‘gaslighting’ can we truly remain sane, rational, and not allow our understanding of the world to be shaped by those who see us as obsolete.

Here are the top ten media and government hoaxes in recent history – lies and distortions that underscore how we truly are living in an age of universal deceit.

– Iraq had weapons of mass destruction

The lie that launched a war, following in the footsteps of numerous others throughout history including the Gulf of Tonkin hoax and the USS Maine. Not long after September 11 and for over a year until the invasion, the mainstream media dutifully repeated the hoax that Saddam Hussein had weapons of mass destruction. One of the main sources used by the British and US governments to make the claim, Rafid Ahmed Alwan al-Janabi, codenamed Curveball, later admitted that he lied about the existence of a WMD program in Iraq and then “watched in shock as it was used to justify the war”.

– Osama Bin Laden was killed in May 2011

With most top analysts firmly of the opinion that Bin Laden died many years ago, a deluge of evidence suggests the May 2011 raid was a manufactured hoax. From the phony situation room photos, to the ludicrous “burial at sea” narrative, to the eyewitness testimony of those who lived in the same village where the raid supposedly took place, the assassination of Osama had all the hallmarks of a Jessica Lynch-style Hollywood hoax.

– The drone program doesn’t exist

Even after drone strikes were already being conducted and reported on around the world, former White House Press Secretary Robert Gibbs was told by the Obama administration to act as if there was no such thing as an active US drone program – regurgitating the hoax that the entire project was completely non-existent. “When I went through the process of becoming press secretary, one of the first things they told me was, you’re not even to acknowledge the drone program,” Gibbs said on MSNBC’s “Up With Chris Hayes” last month.

– The Federal Reserve is federal

The Federal Reserve is no more federal than Federal Express. It is a private bank that poses as a government entity. In 2011, when the New York Times attempted to obtain documents about the Fed’s loans to foreign banks under the Freedom of Information Act, the Fed responded by admitting that it was in fact a privately owned bank and not federal at all, therefore not subject to FOIA requests. As the long-time Chairman of the House Banking and Currency Committee Charles McFadden said on June 10, 1932: “Some people think that the Federal Reserve Banks are United States Government institutions. They are private monopolies.” In 1982, the Ninth Circuit Court ruled that, “Examining the organization and function of the Federal Reserve Banks, and applying the relevant factors, we conclude that the Reserve Banks are not federal instrumentalities for purposes of the FTCA, but are independent, privately-owned and locally controlled corporations.”

– The unemployment rate is 7.7%

The unemployment rate reported by the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics and regurgitated by the media is a hoax. As economist John Williams of the Shadow Government Statistics website exhaustively documents, the real unemployment figure is closer to 23 per cent because the government figure does not include citizens who have stopped looking for work over the course of the previous month. “Since 1994, the long-term discouraged workers, those who have been discouraged for more than one year, have been excluded from all government data,” writes Jerome Corsi.

– Flu vaccines protect you against flu

Despite all its associated health risks, the flu vaccines does not protect you against the flu. The shots have to be renewed every year and even then recent statistics show that the flu vaccine is, “effective in only 56 percent of people who got the shot, and it largely failed to protect the elderly against an especially deadly strain circulating during flu season.”

The establishment media, aided by a raft of leftist websites, is portraying concern over the Department of Homeland Security’s purchase of some 2 billion rounds of ammunition as a conspiracy theory by regurgitating the glib statement of a single DHS official. Erroneously claiming that the mass bullet buys are merely for training purposes or the government saving money by buying in bulk, the hoax conveniently ignores the fact that most of the bullets purchased are hollow point rounds which are both more and expensive and unsuitable for training purposes. The DHS admits that it is preparing for civil unrest by purchasing riot gear and yet the media still portrays the notion that the DHS is preparing for civil unrest as a “conspiracy theory”.

– Democrats and Republicans represent two opposing parties

The biggest political hoax ever invented – that the Republicans and the Democrats represent opposing forces – still continues to dominate despite the two parties habitually agreeing on every major issue. As Georgetown University Professor Carroll Quigley (Bill Clinton’s mentor), wrote in his book Tragedy and Hope, “The argument that the two parties should represent opposed ideals and policies, one, perhaps, of the Right and the other of the Left, is a foolish idea acceptable only to the doctrinaire and academic thinkers. Instead, the two parties should be almost identical, so that the American people can “throw the rascals out” at any election without leading to any profound or extreme shifts in policy. … Either party in office becomes in time corrupt, tired, unenterprising, and vigorless. Then it should be possible to replace it, every four years if necessary, by the other party, which will be none of these things but will still pursue, with new vigor, approximately the same basic policies.”